After the Breaking
by Lock Jay
Summary: On Hiatus, Unfortunately :( Set in a future world, after a ruining war, humanity is still thriving. They have once more adapted to life. But now, another war is threatening. A war for power and land, this time. A ragtag group of orphans from Albar City do their best to escape the place.
1. Prologue

After The Breaking

**Author's Note: I've always thought kids working together in groups, without grown-ups actually telling them to, was a pretty cool feat, so I decided to get a handful of my OC's, launch them into a future where humanity had survived through a half-apocalyptic event, orphan them at a young age, and stick them in a huge city in a new region that had been made in the event. Did I also mention there's now a war going on? With air raids and bombs and huge battles and everything?**

**Oh yeah, and also:**

"Talking."

_Thinking._

**_A psychic Pokémon talking._**

_/Him thinking./_

* * *

><p>He<em> stood in front of Arceus, and defied Him. <em>He_ angered the Legendary Ones, those Pokémon with such power to bend the world to their wills, and _He_ stood there and brought them to battle each other. He twisted their minds to be suspicious of all others, and then _He_ brought them into battle. They fought each other, and as they did the world bent. It was twisted, burnt, frozen, flooded, dried out and renewed. Yet _His_ purpose was not fulfilled. No matter how hard the Legendary Ones fought each other, no matter how much _He_ twisted their minds, the human race survived. _He_ was angry at this, as at the beginning of their species their leader at the time had turned his back on _Him_. And now _He_ would get his revenge. The human race had abandoned him so many years ago, when he needed them most, and now he would destroy them. The _Event_, as _He_ called it, had changed him. He was one of them back then. No longer._

_No longer…_

With a start, Timothy shrieked and fell out of his hammock. The dream had been so vivid this time… It wasn't the first time He had appeared in a dream. He seemed the kind of man to capitalise the 'H' in He for.

_But he wasn't quite a man, was he…_, thought Timothy. _In fact, he seemed to hate mankind's guts._

Timothy sighed, and rubbed his eyes. It was just a dream. He wasn't real. The net he had fallen out of his hammock onto was nice and cool on this warm spring night. He wished his hammock was the same, but Timothy's body heat had warmed it up through the night. Some of the other kids had decided the net was better than their hammocks, so there was a mixture of kids on the net and in the hammocks.

"Timothy, you alright mate?" a voice groaned from the hammock next to his.

Timothy stood up shakily on the net. "I'm fine. It's okay, Luke. Go back to sleep. I just had that bad dream again." He added as he crawled into his hammock.

"Maybe you should ask Luna if it means anything…" the voice drifted off as Luke rolled over and went back to sleep.

"I would, but it's not the sort of thing you usually tell others…" Timothy murmured to himself as he drifted back to sleep.

* * *

><p>"Rise and shine everybody! It's a brand new day and we don't have the food supplies to feed ya all through the rest of spring and summer as well! I need some scavengers awake! I know some of you boys eat more in summer, cauz yer always running around and getting hot an' bothered. Now up! Up!"<p>

Timothy yawned and rolled over, dropping to the net. He lay there for a second, stretching, as he opened his eyes and waited for them to adjust to the bright light streaming in the warehouse window. Next to him, the net fluttered for a second as Luke similarly rolled out of his hammock.

"Mornin'." Luke said in a voice stretched by a yawn.

"Mornin' yerself. Have a good sleep?" Timothy asked over the noise coming from below, now that everyone was waking up. A couple of teenagers walked through the door in the makeshift wall sectioning the warehouse in half. Smells of food came from the makeshift kitchen over at the wall, and a few Pokémon drifted up from the large basement, where they slept. A few of the older teenagers stuck their heads through the doors to their private makeshift rooms held up on the outside of the warehouse, with the doors leading to the net.

Timothy began to make his way to the hole in the net, where he would drop down and be caught in another net near the floor. After making sure no one was on the other net, he launched himself down and out, revelling in the flow of air past his head as he fell towards the floor.

_Whooompf!_

He hit the net and it arrested his fall, and the large collection of pillows beneath it softened the landing. After the net quivered for a few more moments, he got out so others could jump down. As soon as he cleared the net, _Whooompf!_ The net was struck by the twins James and Jane, who were inseparable, even by the seven metre drop. They faced everything together.

Timothy only glanced around to see who had hit the net, then turned his face to the glorious smells coming from the kitchen. A couple of girls and boys were cooking food the scavengers had found in abandoned houses, or stolen from houses during air raids. Air raids were usually at night, so the bombers wouldn't be spotted, and half the time during tea time for the citizens of Albar. As such, food would be left steaming at the table, ripe for the picking.

Lucy, the girl who had been shouting to wake everybody up, was now bustling around trying to get the orphan scouters out. They would have already eaten. Timothy ignored them and moved on to the huge makeshift dining table, still in a stupor from the combination of sleepiness and glorious food smells. Looking like a zombie, Luke sat down next to him. Across the table, Lucy sat down, having sent off the scouters and now looking for breakfast, same as him. She grinned wolfishly at him. Despite being brother and sister and only having a year and a half between them, they didn't look anything alike.

While his hair was brown, straight, and short, hers was a fiery red, curly, and past her shoulders. Her eyes were a light hazel colour, while his were a dull grey-blue. They did however have the same shaped face (slightly round) and body (Short, and a little chubby). She also had a mass of freckles, where he only had a few. There really wasn't much to indicate they were siblings.

"So, how was your sleep?" she asked.

He grumbled. "Not too good. Kept waking, then had a bad dream. Doesn't matter though, dreams don't affect me."

Her smile faded a bit. "Maybe Luna can help ya. She's good with dreams and sleep and that stuff."

He shook his head a little too quickly. "I'll be right. It's just a dream."

She looked at him doubtfully, but thankfully didn't pursue the issue.

Timothy felt a couple of sharp claws digging into his leg, and he moved back a little on the bench to make room for Rev, his Eevee, to climb up onto his lap. Rev, being Rev, made sure he dug his claws in as much as possible while climbing up. Timothy sighed. "Rev, I said I was sorry. I've still no idea what I did, but I said I was sorry."

Lucy frowned at him. "What's Rev on about this time?"

Timothy sighed. "I've no idea, but he keeps taking it out by moulting on my clothes."

She snorted. "He'll get over it eventually. It don't matter, you two ain't gonnna stop being friends, even if you take each other to the Distorted Dimension."

"Eev!" Rev sniffed at her. He curled up on Timothy's lap and ignored them all. Timothy chuckled, and waited for the food.

He looked around. It was a couple of days since the group of orphans found him, unconscious and lying near a bomb crater during an air raid. He and Lucy had been separated when they first arrived in the city, after travelling across the region from the only other city. The plane had landed smoothly, but an air raid was quick in the opportunity. Timothy remembered explosions and being ripped away from Lucy, and then surviving on his own for a few weeks. It was a huge city, so it had taken a while for the orphans to find him.

"Breakfast time!" a voice shouted, and everyone not at the table dashed over, pushing around and laughing. There had been more yesterday. At least thirty. Now their numbers were just over twenty, maybe a few more. That was only the young orphans, of course. There weren't as many teenagers, the older ones usually going off to fight in the war, but there were quite a few of them too. Most did their own things, wandering around as they pleased, but some stayed with the kids and helped. Most of them slept in the warehouse with the others.

Timothy licked his lips as his food was placed in front of him by Matilda, one of the cooks. She was an older teenager, but she'd rather stay with the orphans than fight, or help the war. He had toast with some fried eggs, and he grabbed a salt shaker from the middle of the table and shook salt all over his eggs. Smiling, he dug in.

* * *

><p>Lock crouched behind the garden wall, breathing hard and clutching the sack to his chest. He hadn't thought the mech-worker would be back so soon, so he didn't have everything Alex needed. Blade, crouching next to him, had an amused look on his face, finding Lock in the third spot of trouble today. And it wasn't even breakfast time yet! Lock looked at the sky, and saw the sun low over the horizon, just behind one of the warships in the bay.<p>

_Well, the others would be waking up around now for breakfast, maybe. I might meet a few Scavengers looking for things,_ Lock thought to himself. He yawned. He'd been up all night. _I need some breakfast myself._

**_Well, if you'd have done this earlier, instead of messing around over that orphan earlier, you would be back by now. You knew that the Finders would be there within half an hour. You didn't have to wait for them. That orphan was fine; he wouldn't have gone anywhere,_** Blade interjected. **_It's hard to do so when your legs aren't responding to you._**

_I know, but still, _Lock thought back. He had a soft spot for kids, which was why he hadn't joined the war. They were recruiting anyone over the age of 15 years and 10 weeks, unless they'd gotten some other teenager pregnant, or were pregnant themselves. They had psychic Pokémon that could do that. And his girlfriend definitely wasn't pregnant. That was another problem though. Even if he did go to war, that would be abandoning her. If he survived, she'd kill him for sure. She would never go with him of course; she hated the war and fighting. Small training battles between orphans were fine, but anything bigger she hated.

Blade made a weird chuckling sound, picking up on these stray thoughts. Then he ducked his head down and shut up as there was a crash from the shed Lock had dashed from not even a minute ago.

"Damn orphans! Stealing stuff from my shed again! I'm going to have to set mouse traps or something! ARGH!"

Lock glanced over the wall and saw a large man tearing his hair out, and stifled a laugh. He was the only orphan that knew about this shed, and he'd been stealing stuff for almost a year now for Alex. Alex loved the little gadgets and bits and pieces he got from Lock, and had made all sorts of things. He was currently working on some new Pokéball type, and it so happened that the man tearing his hair out in the shed worked for a company that produced many things, including Pokéballs.

_Well, Blade, it doesn't look like we'll be getting anything more for now. Time to go, I think,_ Lock thought to Blade, and at the Gallade's nod, they scurried along the wall, low as they could without crawling. As soon as they reached the fence they straightened up and leaped onto the wall, then climbed a pipe to the shed roof. The man must've heard their footsteps on the roof, because he walked out hurriedly, looking up, in time to catch a glance of Lock and Blade leaping from the roof of his shed to the roof of a shed next door. From that they jumped down over the fence into the streets, crossed the road to an old ladder, and climbed to the top. And off they went, running across the rooftops of Albar.

* * *

><p>He was walking through an abandoned workshop. It lay on the west coast of Sinnoh, where most of the bombs were made. They were then shipped off to the Royal Sinnoh Airforce Airfield just out of Florama Town, where they were packed into planes and sent off to bomb the new region, Unbara. Of course, He didn't actually need to be here, except for making sure his tools stayed sharp. That's all the human race was to Him now. Tools of their own destruction.<p>

That idiotic tribe leader so long ago had died of a broken heart, but not before making sure that He would be forever separate. Always alone, apart from the human race, even if He had once been one. That was all in the past now though. Infuriatingly, humans were some of the most adaptable creatures that nature could create. And if they couldn't adapt themselves to survive, they adapted the area around them to suit their needs.

And it all boiled down to the connection between humans and Pokémon. Wherever humans went, Pokémon stood beside them as friends, allies, helpers. He sneered. /_Friends._ _Allies. I have no need for such uselessness. Tools, now. They are so much better… Especially when the tools happen to be the sort that will fight each other, rip each other apart at a moment's notice. Now, if only I had succeeded with breaking that bond in the Ruinous War…/_

He had thought that the Pokémon would've sided with their respective gods, and torn themselves apart. As it was, they had helped to repair the damage between the legendary beings, and brought the humans back out of their hiding places. It had ruined His plan.

_/But this time… with humans and Pokémon fighting… all they need is a shove, just to get things going…/_

He straightened. He had a war to oversee, an evil group to prepare. Such little thoughts of friends and the like drifted away.

He had no time for that now. Business waited.

* * *

><p><strong>And that's the prologue. I really hoped you enjoyed. I've planned this story out, which is majorly unusual for me. I should actually finish this one, and I like where it's going.<strong>

**Please, read and review. I might accept a few OC's later on, but first I'll see how it goes. Please inform me of any grammar/spelling mistakes, and anything you think would be good. Constructive criticism accepted, flames and hating will be deleted or ignored, more likely ignored because it means less effort.**

**~Lock**

**PS: I just edited this, there were some grammar/spelling/plot mistakes that I fixed.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Author Note: Okay, here's the next chapter. Slightly longer.**

**I'll introduce some more characters in this one, give you some history, and start a plot that could possibly lead to the end of the world.  
>Or the end of Time.<br>Or something else.  
>Or not. <strong>

…

…

…

**Here's the chapter! :D (BTW, this chapter jumps between the present war and outside of time. Just a warning.)**

* * *

><p>"Talking."<p>

_Thinking._

_**A psychic Pokémon talking.**_

"**Him speaking."**

_**GIRATINA SPEAKING.**_

* * *

><p>"Aha! Lock! You're back! That's good! Very good! Do you have…" the rambling teenager's sentence was met by a thrown object, which he shut up and caught. It was a bunch of special electric wires, connected by a technical-looking object.<p>

"I got most of the stuff, but the owner came back and almost caught me. I'll try again tomorrow, perhaps. Or just visit another place. I know a few good spots for stealing stuff like that."

"Well, don't tell me about them. I don't particularly want to know about your thieving. Not really. I'm just interested in the stuff you bring. That's the good stuff."

Lock laughed. "Wasn't gonna tell you anyway, dude. The stealing is better when you're the only one who knows the thieving spots. _Especially_ when you're the only one. Of course, it's easier sometimes if you have help, but I have Blade for that."

"Well, thanks for these. Try and get those other parts for me, will you? I need them for the testing of my new-"

"Sure," Lock answered, cutting Alex off as he walked out the door. "You can tell me about your thing later. I've got some breakfast that needs eating. I haven't had anything since lunch yesterday, and I did a lot of running this morning."

The door closed behind him. Alex breathed a sigh of relief. He'd almost said it just then. The Word that he had discovered. Alex hated the Word, but not quite as much as he hated other humans. The whole lot of them were vile.

The Word, however, brought reprieve from this. It was from the Lost Ages, those times before the Breaking War. It was very obviously from a _very_ long time before that. He had found the Word in one of the ruined libraries in the region, one that lay off in the jungle, in the midst of one of the many ruined cities that now adorned the world. Alex had liked exploring when he was younger, and often wandered out of the city with his older brother Jarred.

"**Have you made it yet? I've been waiting for it."**

Alex jumped in shock, looking around. He didn't see Him though. Just clutter and mess, so many worthless pieces of technology and metal. Until, of course, he had started putting them together, making new things. He had reinvented a new version of the Pokéball, for the orphans to use. It wasn't well done, but he was still proud of it. He was currently remaking it for that voice that happened to-

"**Pay attention. Your thoughts are weak, easily distracted. They wander too easily. Concentrate on my voice, and do exactly as you are told…"**

The expression on Alex's face was hard to read as the voice went on to explain, but near the end of the explanation, the expression was definitely terror…

* * *

><p>Skye walked along the path. She had been walking along this path for so long now, every day. Each night she made camp, ate, slept. In the mornings she would wake, and continue to walk along the path once more. She knew why she was always walking this path, but she couldn't remember whether she was ever supposed to leave. There were many exits, that was for sure. She had entered the path during the beginning of the war. She had been tasked to finding any legendaries that weren't actually warring, were still sane. She had said goodbye to her family, her boyfriend Brad, and went on her mission. She had certainly found legendaries alright, but not the sort that she wanted. She had found Celebi and Uxie, continuously doing the same thing over and over. Uxie would open her eyes and remove Celebi's memory, and Celebi would then remove the memory-wipe from her timeline, and retrieve it. Then it would repeat.<p>

Skye had stumbled upon this in Johto, next to Silver canyon, where Mt. Silver had been before. She had literally stumbled upon it, tripping over on a ledge and landing on Celebi. Celebi had screeched, and she had found herself ripped from Time, sent to forever walk along the path.

Skye stopped for a moment, looking out over the sea that stretched either side the thin strip of land the path was on. There were many different exits, but she didn't feel like returning to Time. Every now and then she would see Celebi fly through one exit to the other, but it was always the peaceful Celebi from before. She didn't know what she would do if she met the twisted one.

Also, there were weird… ripples in some parts of the path, like the path was being stretched towards one of the exits that lay in the sea. She had to struggle to continue in those parts, had to force her eyes away from the exit, which would immediately seem like the only thing in the world. She thought it might be places where Time had grown faulty, and whoever was on the path needed to fix it. She had guessed this after a Celebi had flown through one of the rippling exits, and the ripple in the path straightened. The Celebi had then returned and flown through another exit, a normal one this time.

Once, she had suddenly walked into what seemed to be a solid wall of colour, which had ripped through the sea on one side and smashed through the path. She had sat there for days waiting for a Celebi to come along to fix the path, as she couldn't jump over the gap. She had been rewarded, as a Celebi had indeed fixed the path. Without even slowing down to notice her, it had flown over the gap speedily, and it had just reappeared underneath.

She thought that the beam of colour had been one of Dialga's Roar of Time attacks, and wondered what had been happening. It had made a new exit as well.

Occasionally there was someone else on the path. No one she knew, and they always seemed weird to her. Some seemed to come from far before her time, some after. The ones after her time were few and far between, and they were always half-mad. None seemed to realise she was even there.

* * *

><p>Skye walked along the path. It had been ages since she had seen an exit, now. She thought she might finally be reaching near the end of Time, and wondered what it was like. A Celebi flitted over her head from an Exit that hadn't been there before, into another that only appeared for a moment.<p>

Suddenly, a huge shimmering wall of light was before her. But it wasn't... white… or yellow… or any kind of colour. It was just… light. And it hadn't really suddenly appeared. It had been there for days now, but she had paid it no more notice than anything else.

And Skye made a decision. This wall was the end of Time as she knew it. But that didn't mean she had to go through it just yet. She sat down, and contemplated the wall for a few spans of eternity or so. Time was meaningless in a path that was outside of Time. Day and night came, true, but there was no sun, no moon, no stars. Just light, and no light. During the times of no light, the wall would be there, a wall of light, but it wouldn't illuminate anything. There was still a mild luminescence, but that had been throughout the whole of the path.

Skye's decision hovered at the edge of her mind, slowly gaining substance as she considered it. And then it leaped forwards, and she decided completely.

She would go back in Time. She would run, as fast as she could, back to before the war. She could do it. She had walked for more than the same length of whatever passed for Time here. She would run back, and find the cause of the war, and maybe even stop it before it began. She would do her best.

And along the way, she might pop in on the certain areas of Time after the war. She would find out the conditions after the war beforehand, see whether any good came from it. If humanity was better off (however unlikely it may be), she would leave it as it was, and return to the light wall. She would fix things.

She turned around, and began to run.

The wall faded into misty distance behind her, as each step travelled further than the last, but never out of site, as it stretched on forever, in all senses of the word.

* * *

><p>Shortly after the First Beginning, almost identical twins were born to the chief of a small tribe of warriors. These warriors had tamed the beasts that roamed the lands, and used them in battle. No other tribes had discovered the feat of taming these creatures.<p>

The two brothers grew up in the center of a growing tribe, one of the First Tribes of Men, and became powerful. They both tamed many of these beasts themselves, and all was peaceful for a while.

Until one day when their father died.

Before this, the Chief had lived strongly, never showing a sign of weakness, and even on his death bed he argued back and forth with his wives on who would succeed him, that he was perfectly healthy enough to squash a small rebellion on the east coast with just his beasts to help him, and other tribal matters.

He slowly gained ground in these arguments, only losing a few. His will was still iron-hard, and his different wives would never join in choosing children of another wife to succeed him, which helped him. He wanted a traditional battle of his offspring to choose the successor, not some decision he made. He wanted luck and skill to decide. He died still arguing over this, and his wives had no choice but to either honour his last spoken words, or be banished from the tribe.

And his last words had been "My children will fight for the title of chief! Then we will know who is to come… after…"

And so they fought. Tears were wept for losses of children, and the mothers of those whose children died followed quickly to the afterlife. A chief's wife without children was useless to these people.

Finally, two children remained. One would proceed to be chief, the other… death.

The twins stared at each other for a long while, watching every twitch, every breath, every blink. After an hour of standing completely still (which was nothing compared to some of the other children's battles – one had lasted three and a half days before one of them killed the other, with one of those days filled with the staring) they engaged in battle.

But they knew each other far too well. They had grown up training against each other, fighting side by side, for one to overpower the other. They fought for weeks, never breaking for rest or food. These people had evolved a tireless way of battle. Some could sustain fights for months. Not even sustenance was needed, for energy still lay in the air from the Creation. It had not had time to dissipate yet, not even with the few centuries Creation had been. The warriors tapped into this energy flow and fought on.

Finally, on the fifth week, luck struck down one of the twins, the one twisted his ankle on a rogue rock, and on falling broke his wrist. Battle Luck, as it was called, struck at any time, whether fights had lasted minutes or months.

But now a dilemma arose. The fallen twin could not hold his weapon, or even stand to throw a punch with his other hand, and was helpless to anything the other did. But the standing twin could do nothing without throwing dishonour on himself and his family, which would bring war to the tribe, for the first time since their father had united the region. It would bring chaos.

And so they stayed at an impasse for days. The broken wrist healed wrong, and it pained the fallen twin. His ankle also healed, but in a way that it would be useless for standing. Finally, after another three days wait, the standing twin threw down his weapon next to his brother, and announced, for all to hear;

"I may not kill an unarmed warrior without great dishonour, and so I forfeit this. I will confine myself to my hut, and only ever leave on urgent, life or death situations, or if I am called to battle. I forfeit."

But he had misjudged his twin's pained demeanor for helplessness. He still had use for his other hand, and used it to hold the weapon, and then to throw it at his twin, someone he had loved for years. His twin forfeiting had brought dishonour, although nowhere near as much as if he had killed him. The fallen twin was filled with anger. The weapon ripped a hole in the standing twin's side. This shocked the watching crowd. This was now something completely personal. The standing twin fell, and, injured, he lay on his side, watching as others helped his crippled twin up, who was then given the Chief weapon, a long stick topped with a foot long blade, sharp on both edges. It was carved along its length, and had been made by the very First Chief of this tribe. It had claimed many lives, both human and beast.

The new chief, the crippled twin, looked down on his dying brother, and sentenced him to eternal exile, forever able to see the tribe but never close enough to touch. But he did not know the power behind his first words as a new chief holding the creation-energy imbued weapon, made by one who had been directly Created by Arceus, their god.

At his words, a huge obelisk of a shiny substance sprung from the ground, just behind the injured twin. Purple ripples spread across it as a yellow and grey face, with dark purple eyes, looked out at him.

_**AS YOU COMMAND, SO MOTE IT BE.**_

The voice reverberated throughout the minds of the tribe, and they clutched their heads, falling to the ground.

After a few moments had passed, they recouped, to find that both the shining obelisk and the injured twin had disappeared. In their place was a circular plate made of the same substance as the obelisk, roughly a handspan wide. As the new chief picked it up, it flickered. A purple eye looked out at him, and he flinched backwards at a deep-voiced chuckle.

_**YOU HAVE NOT THE KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT YOU HAVE DONE. I SAW THAT MUCH OF YOUR MIND. SO I PRESENT TO YOU THE FIRST GIFT OF THE GODS TO MANKIND – THE SHADOW MIRROR. IT SHALL ALLOW YOU, AND ANY DESCENDENTS OF YOURS, TO ACCESS ANY KNOWLEDGE I HAVE, WITH MY CONSENT. YOU MAY CALL ON ME ONLY THRICE IN YOUR LIFETIME, UNTIL SUCH A POINT THAT YOU PASS ME TO YOUR CHILDREN. WHOEVER HOLDS THE MIRROR FIRST WILL BE THE ONLY ONE IT ANSWERS TO, AND ONLY THOSE OF YOUR BLOODLINE. NOW, UNLESS YOU HAVE NEED OF MY HELP AT THIS INSTANT, I HAVE MATTERS TO SEE TOO. CREATION HAS NOT FINISHED YET, AND I AM STILL FIRMING THE BONDS BETWEEN WORLDS.**_

"I would like to know what happened to my brother, if you would."

_**AS SUCH, YOU MAY ONLY CALL ON ME TWICE MORE IN YOUR LIFETIME. ARE YOU SURE THAT THIS IS THE QUESTION YOU WILL ASK?**_

"Yes." The remaining twin confirmed.

_**YOU SENTENCED, BY THE POWER OF THE GODS, YOUR BROTHER TO ETERNAL EXILE. HE WILL DWELL WITHIN MY REALM FOREVERMORE, UNTIL THE END OF TIME ITSELF. THAT IS WHAT YOU HAVE DONE.**_

_**THINK ON SUCH A FATE, AND KNOW IT FOR WRONG.**_

As the presence vanished, the only thought that ran through the chief's head was his brother's name, along with a slight sense of loss.

* * *

><p>Munching on his toast, Jarred sat in the corner of the doorway leading out from the main teenager's side of the warehouse to his private bedroom. His Beartic slumbered in the corner, no longer having a Pokéball to occupy. Crash's breath chilled the humid air, which might have been unbearable otherwise this high up in the warhouse.<p>

Jarred was thinking. He was the 'leader' of the teenage orphans. As much as you could 'lead' teenagers. They mostly did what they wanted, which was fine by him. He didn't have time to make sure they did stuff. He had his own things to do.

And idea struck him, like a small voice whispering at the back of his mind. He smiled slowly. He wasn't the brightest, but he knew how to work a good idea out and make it happen when he had one. Although, this idea seemed to be forming at the back of his head without him doing much thinking on it.

If he found this strange, he ignored it as he finished his toast and woke Crash up. "Crash, snoozy time is over. I've got an idea to plan on."

Crash snorted, freezing the blanket in front of him, before crawling out of the room.

* * *

><p>Luna's eyes flickered beneath her closed eyelids, and her image flickered. She went from six year old to 23 year old, then back to what seemed more like seven. She could no longer remember her age, but she wasn't that old. Surely she was at most 30… But she liked the form of a child, and the mind-frame that went with it. So innocent, so peaceful. Maybe a little too intelligent for any normal child of six or seven, but that didn't matter. She loved to help kids, and these kids didn't accept any help from adults. She marvelled at them for their steadfastness.<p>

She opened her eyes and frowned as a deep voice whispered around her. Never inside her head. She had discouraged that when it had first happened. She had had her Drowzee, Yawner, pull it from her mind and flick it back to where it came from. She ignored it now. It had the feel of a deep, desperate, dark magic to it. She didn't deal with that sort of thing. Her magic was entirely her own, not from some sort of devil Pokémon, or whatever those black mages and witches got their magic from. Well, maybe she had a little help from Mooshy, her Munna. She remember catching Mooshy. She had actually been six at the time, truly six. It had seemed a logical name choice to her at that point, she was sure. Mooshy of course didn't mind, and had no problems with it.

The deep voice went from a whisper to a shout suddenly, and she sat bolt upright. Her form flickered to that of an old granny as she knocked her head on the shelf above her bed, before returning to six.

Clutching her head, she rolled out of bed and shaped some clouds she kept beneath her bed into Buneary slippers. She followed the sense of the voice out into the main warehouse. It was talking to someone else, she thought… but it wasn't someone eating over at the table, or anyone sleeping in late up in the nets. She walked across the hall to the back door, and opened it. She could hear words now, instead of unintelligible mutterings.

She shuddered. What she could hear didn't sound too pleasing. The string of words led her down the short path at the back, until she was standing outside of Alex's workshop. She could hear horrible sentences now, and blocked it from her mind.

She tried the door handle, but it was locked, so she murmured a spell and opened the door as fast as she could.

It slammed open, scaring the wits out of Alex, who had been standing over a gadget, tools in hand, but staring into space with a frightened expression on his face. When the door opened, the voice cut off suddenly, and Alex whipped his head towards the door.

"Uh, Luna, hi? Did you want something? I've got Poké-balls and some other cool stuff to show… you… if you want?" he asked, voice cracking as she just stood there and stared at him. "Um, Luna? Could you, ah, y' know? Talk? Answer? If you need something I'd be happy to-"

"You were listening to Him, weren't you Lex?" she said, cutting him off. Lex was what she called him. "I could hear Him talking to someone when I woke up. It's that voice. You shouldn't listen to Him, Lex. He tells you bad stuff" she added, the six year old style of speaking slipping in a bit more. "Yawner had to pull Him out of my head, Lex."

Alex's expression was of utter horror now. "Um, wh-what are y-you talking about, Luna? Wh-who's Him? I've got n-no clue what y-you're talking about."

Luna stared at him for another couple of moments. "Lex, you don't lie good. I can tell, y' know. You really shouldn't. I don't want you to."

Alex sighed. His face was smooth now, controlled, and Luna once more heard the dark whispering. She shivered. "Luna, Luna, Luna. You must have been having a dream. I'm fine, okay? You don't need to worry about me."

"But- "

"I said, don't worry. Now, go. I need to finish this machine. I'm fine, okay?"

Luna sighed crossly. This wasn't good. The voice obviously had more control over Alex than she could've thought. There was no point in trying to help.

"I can hear Him right now, Lex. But if you want to hurt yourself, listen. I don't care!"

And she fled from the room, true six year old style. The six year old mindset had once more settled on her. The door slammed shut behind her.

* * *

><p>Skye was running. She must have been running for a couple of moments now, she thought. She had not stopped once. In reflection, she had never needed to stop on her way forwards, either. And it seemed strange that the food had never run out. Maybe she had never really eaten it? Perhaps it was only a trick of the mind, to help settle her into this new place. The Path of Times.<p>

A Celebi flew across in front of her from one exit to another, shimmers running around it. She glanced up at it. The shimmers seemed to fill her being, renew it, and then they were gone. Then she realised that she had stopped, and it was looking at her, actually seeing her. This was the first Celebi along the Path to do so. Then it turned and flew off.

This was a blessing. The blessing of Celebi. She turned her head back to the front.

She ran on.

* * *

><p>Lock walked down the road, whistling. He was thinking about his past. He knew that he was forgetting something. Something seemed… <em>wrong<em>, with his memories. Everything before that first explosion of light seemed… watery. Not quite right, a sort of fuzziness, like something on a TV screen that didn't have a good enough signal.

_Wait… TV? They haven't been used in years… Where did that thought come from? I've only ever seen two of them anyway… Haven't I? I don't… _

_**Lock? Your thoughts are blurry. I can't read them. Are you hiding them from me, or is it… something else?**_

"I'm not hiding anything from you. I have no idea why they would be blurry. But… for some reason my memories seem… strange, suddenly. I have no idea where they came from. But I know they're mine."

_**I'm no expert on these things. I'm a Gallade, not an Xatu. But maybe you should ask Luna. She seems to know a lot about these things.**_

"Maybe I will, Blade. Maybe I will."

As he reached the warehouse again, Blade suddenly stopped, tilting his head to one side. _**Uh, Lock? Something's trying to talk to you, but it seems… I dunno… seems pretty dark. I'm not going to let it.**_

Lock scratched his head. "So, something's trying to talk to me in my mind, basically? But 'cause it seems evil or whatever, you're not going to let it? Sounds fine to me. I don't like evil things. Too… evil, for my taste."

_**Well said.**_

"Thank you."

* * *

><p>He stood there, at the top of Spear Pillar. He looked down at His reflection in the pond which led to the Distorted Dimension. His reflection was without colour, pure white. He knew that if He stood on the reflected side of the obelisk, in the Distorted Dimension, He would <em>be<em> that reflection. And that his reflection for this world would be nothing but shadows, twisted, distorted. Here, He was the reflection that He would see from that side. There, He was the reflection he saw on this side. He knew that now.

Back _then_, of course, he had been naive. He had been on the other side of the pond at the time. This was the first reflection that had ever been. The pond wasn't quite a pond.

It had once been an obelisk. The obelisk had sprung into existence one day, when a certain two young men had been fighting. One had defeated the other and gained leadership of the tribe they had been a part of. Then he had banished his brother forever, but his words were taken literally by the gods, and so reflections had been born. The defeated one had been exiled into a dimension made to be the foundations of the other world. Before, no reflections could be seen, but now, gradually, reflections started appearing to people.

The obelisk had melted back into the ground, but had also formed a silver pool a few metres below the ground. From this point outwards, reflections started to appear in the world, something that would never have been possible without the new chief's actions. Reflections firmed the bond between the world and its foundations, and gradually the rest of the tribe forgot the other man.

But he had not forgotten them. Constantly, eternally, he had attempted to cross back over whenever he found a reflection of his home world. Always, the reflection had either burst, or not accepted him. Until he found his entrance to the world. The first reflection. He remembered the man standing there for days. Watching his reflection.

He stood there for the moment, watching his reflection.

* * *

><p><strong>Okay. I think that chapter went well.<strong>

**Anyway, read/review. Again, hope you liked it.**

**~Lock**


	3. Chapter 2

"Talking."

_Thinking._

"_Talking to others with thoughts"_

_**A psychic Pokémon talking.**_

"**Him speaking."**

* * *

><p>Skye slowed down. She had felt that the right exit had been coming closer for a couple of decades now. And she was finally here. She didn't know how she knew that it was the right exit, but it was, and she did. She stood on the edge of the grass patch that lay on either side of the Path, and looked through the exit…<p>

And saw a warehouse. She frowned. A warehouse? How could this be right-

_WAIT! Is that…? No, he should've died almost a hundred years ago! And he looks the same as when I last saw him… He would've insisted on fighting in the war at least, even if Katie tried to stop him. And would've promptly got himself killed trying to save others…_

_Lock, what are you doing 97 years after I saw you last? And there's Blade, too. What are you doing in the future?_

Skye made up her mind. She HAD to go through this exit now, at least so she could see what Lock was doing here and how he got there.

Skye jumped.

And was caught by a pair of burly arms.

"HEY!" she yelled, trying to squirm out of them to the exit.

"Calm down. I'm saving your life here, not trying to kidnap you. You just tried to jump into a Suukna."

"What the hell is a Suukna! And put me down, damn you!" her voice cracked. She hadn't spoken in maybe 500 years, not since she met some lady who hadn't said a word, just looked at her funny.

The arms moved, swinging her back over the path. "A Suukna," said the person, "is a creature that lives along the Path. They catch unwary travellers trying to get out, and completely ruin their minds. I'm sure you must have met Suukna victims. It's hard not to."

Skye turned around, and almost screamed at the sight of the man's face. It was hideously scarred, with a broken nose and a missing ear, burn marks covering his left cheek. The only part of that face that didn't seem harmed in any way was his eyes. They were a dull forest green, and seemed to bore into her. His face might have once been handsome, but any vestiges of that had long gone. The rest of him was almost as bad, with scars criss-crossing his arms, legs and chest, as he had only a vest on. Like his arms, he was burly, and it seemed impossible that the cuts that had inflicted those scars hadn't cut into the muscles bulging beneath his skin.

He grimaced. "Yes, the sight of me does scare most folk. This happened to me on my trip back onto the Path just a few hundred years ago. My Scizor, Whipper, suddenly turned on me, as did quite a few wild Pokémon. I barely escaped with my life. Pokémon don't usually like me too much."

Skye took a moment to absorb this, still staring at the horrific sight "So, it _is_ possible to get back on the Path once you've left then?"

"Aye. In fact, it's hard _not_ to get back to the Path. Whenever you turn a light on, or get dizzy, lose concentration, or a dozen other things, you have to think of nothing but staying where you are.; otherwise the Path will draw you back. That will bring you to the Beginning Light. Whenever a light suddenly turns off, or you trip and fall over, or perhaps you get knocked on the head too hard, you'll end up at the End Light if you're not careful."

"So if I want to get back to the path I just have to turn a light on?"

"No, just think about the Path and look for an exit. They'll pop out at you surprisingly quickly. Also, you're taking this all very calmly, so I assume you've been here a while."

He sat down. "And that is how you return to the path. Leaving is an entire different matter. The Path will do its best to keep you on it. It is a battle of the wills to leave, and only the strongest willed will survive." He snorted. "Cowards seem to either survive easily or give in on the first try."

Skye sat down too. "So… how do you realise which exits are Suukna exactly?"

He frowned. "Suukna don't pretend to be exits, they float over them and wait for someone to jump. The trick is to throw something else in there first. Then they'll flash shut and disappear. I just pick a stone from the Path like so-"

He picked a stone from the Path and dropped it into the Suukna. There was a violent flash of red and purple, then nothing. He turned to her and grinned. "And there we have it. No more Suukna. They're easily fooled."

Skye grinned in return, and stood up, brushing dust from her legs. "Thanks. My name is–" she tried to say, but was cut off by him clapping his hand over her mouth.

"_Never_ say your name on the Path. That is probably the worst possible thing you can do. And you can't always use your name while outside, either. Occasionally the Path will pick it up. The best thing to do is never use your real name. If someone else talks to you with it, that's fine, as long as you don't actively agree that it _is_ your name. Before you can be called anything again, you have to find your Path-Name. I found mine as Hunter. Because that is what I do – hunt for the rookie time travellers. Among other things…"

He released her mouth. She rubbed her eyes, and thought for a moment. "'Find your Path-Name?' How do you do that?"

"You'll figure that out eventually. Until you find it though, you won't be able to use any names. And without a name, you can't even be seen properly. People's eyes just slide over you, and they just think they're hearing things when you speak or make noises. They might step out of your way if you stand in front of them, but they won't even know why. As I'm speaking, to my eyes, you already seem hard to make myself look at. I'm just used to it."

Skye looked down at herself in alarm, but couldn't see anything wrong with herself.

"You won't notice anything, of course. But I can feel someone else trying to get off the Path at the moment, so I suppose I better go save them," at this point, his eyes were staring somewhere over her left shoulder, and he kept frowning and looking sideways, as if there was something annoying in the corner of his eye. "I may see you again. If you find your Path-Name, that is. You know mine, so you should be able to find me again easily."

Something in his tone alarmed her. "Wait… What! 'If'? What do you mean, _if_ I find my Path-Name? Is there a possibility I won't?"

He frowned, and shook his head. He was staring a metre to her left now. "If you're trying to speak, I can't hear you. Only a buzzing," he sighed. "Luckily I managed to tell the basics. Anyway, I better be off now. Goodbye."

Standing up, he turned around, but paused a moment. "Some people that aren't on the path know, or can find the Path-Names of the people who are on the Path. They're rare, but can usually see us. I think there's one in the time that you were trying to jump into." He turned again and vanished.

She blinked. _So until I find my Path-Name, I'll be completely unnoticeable? That sucks… and why is this only happening now? Shouldn't it have happened as soon as I entered the Path, or when I first met someone else on it? Actually, that's probably why no one paid attention to me. But then, how do I find it in the first place? It was a lot of information in a short time… Well, if he's saving rookies from dying or something, then I suppose he's busy and has to give people the information fast._

Skye stood there, looking at the exit, these thoughts running through her head. She sighed. _To hell with Path-Names, at the moment I've got some questions to ask. Lock, here I come!_

The exit with the warehouse in it, with Lock and Blade standing there as if frozen, rippled as she passed through it. There was a flash of light, and she was gone.

* * *

><p>Timothy yawned, rubbing his eyes. The dream had come again last night, and he hadn't gotten much sleep. He was seriously contemplating going to Luna, but he didn't really feel like sharing the details, which talking to Luna would include. Luna was also a little bit creepy.<p>

"I don't think you should be doing this, Luke. Only teenagers go down there, and only the ones who spend their time drugged up. There's probably nothin' but a drug dealer."

"Nah, don't reckon. There's probably other stuff. Not everyone who goes down there comes back high. Lock for example. And Steve and Alex."

"Maybe they just didn't find a drug they wanted. I dunno. Just leave well alone."

"But–"

"Oh whatever. But if you come back high, I'm telling Lucy. Whatever's down there, just look."

Luke grinned. "I wouldn't have any credits to buy anything with anyway. Oh, actually I found two megabits on the ground the other day, but apart from that, nada. I'll be right, mate. Back in a minute!"

And he darted off down the alley. Tim rolled his eyes, and sat down on the curb. Rev trotted over and sat down on his lap. "Eev!"

Tim laughed. "I know. He's an idiot. But I suppose he is my friend… Nah. I'm not going down there. If he needs help, he's got his Trapinch."

"Ee."

"Yeah, letting him go by himself was stupid. Whatever, you talked me into it."

Removing Rev from his lap, Tim stood up and started walking down the alley. It was a little dark, but plenty light to see by. He turned a corner and found Luke crouching, looking at some fungus. He turned to face Timothy.

"Oh hey, didn't think you'd be able to resist. Check this out, it glows every now and then."

To prove Luke's point, the mystery fungus glowed for a moment, then faded.

"Cool, huh?"

"Yeah, real cool, but we should get out of here. Nothing's even down here," Tim said.

"Oh whatever. I thought I heard someone further down, but it's boring apart from this stuff."

"Good. Let's go."

Leaving the alley, they didn't notice the Crobat that had been watching them from above.

* * *

><p>Lock wandered casually towards the warehouse, stomach growling, when the first street lamp blew out. Then another one went, and a couple more.<p>

"Erm, Blade? You were saying something about an evil presence or something? Is that what's causing this?"

_**It seems to be. To what purpose I've no idea. Ignore it, I suppose.**_

"Sounds like good advice to me," Lock said. "And besides, I'm starving."

Opening the doors to the warehouse, the two walked inside, to the sounds of people eating.

Just a few metres away, Skye stood where she was and didn't move, thinking only of staying where she was. When she felt the Path slip away, she felt safe to move again. She frowned at what had just happened, and what she had just heard. _Someone knows of the Path and is trying to keep people out of this time. Apparently Psychic Pokémon can sense it. I should be careful._

Skye moved forwards, towards the warehouse. When no more lamps blew out, she relaxed a little, and entered the warehouse. Several eyes moved towards the doors but slid away. Skye ignored those, and looked around for Lock. He was simultaneously stuffing his face with bacon and toast, and telling a story to some of the younger kids. Skye caught something about a very angry pig farmer, when she jumped as someone tugged at her sleeve. Turning worriedly, she found a small girl looking at her. Sky found that the best two words to describe her were Dark and Deep. Dark, because everything about the girl was dark, dark skin, dark hair, dark eyes, dark clothes, and deep because her eyes seemed to hold wisdom beyond her years.

"You're not from now, are you?" The little girl asked. Something about her seemed older for a moment, before settling back to normal. "You look all shimmery."

"You can see me?" Asked Skye. It seemed a good question to ask, after Hunter's words. Maybe she was the one Hunter had mentioned?

The little girl frowned, suddenly taking on the attributes of an old woman, and Skye jumped back. Blinking, she stared at the little girl, who grinned widely. "I don't think I'm from this time either. Nobody else can seem to see the shimmery ones. They kind of hover around, like Ghost types, but no one notices them. I can though."

"Umm, okay. What's your name, little girl? I don't know mine yet," Skye said truthfully. Seeing as she couldn't use her real name, it was indeed the truth.

"My full name is Lepracia Fiadarin Urala, but I like Luna better. So call me that, please. Most of the other shimmery ones didn't know their names either, so I helped them find them."

Skye felt a surge of hope at finding hers so swiftly. "That would be lovely, thank you. And I think that Luna suits you well."

The little girl beamed, her eyes twinkling, and she was a kindly woman for a moment, before being a girl again.

"But first, before I help you, can you sing me a song? I didn't have a very good sleep last night. There was a bad man telling Alex bad things, and it woke me up."

Skye didn't know who Alex was, but she agreed all the same. "Of course I will. Where do you sleep usually?"

Luna turned around and ran off towards one side of the building, sliding open a door to a dimly lit room. Skye followed, and when her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she saw dozens and dozens of cushions and pillows covering the floor, which already had a thick carpet laid down on it. Skye thought it looked very cozy, and said so to Luna as she closed the door behind her.

Luna looked at her very seriously. "It has to be, otherwise how would I sleep? Oh, and Yawner, and Missy, and Mooshy. They sleep here too! Yawner is a Drowzy, Missy is a Whismur, and Mooshy is a Munna. They share their dreams with me, pretty lady."

Skye grinned. "Okay. Well, get comfortable, and I'll sing you a lullaby, shall I?"

"Yes please!" Luna snuggled down into the cushions, and wrapped herself in a blanket from somewhere. Skye sat down near the edge, and started singing. It was a song that she'd heard many times as a child, but she hadn't forgotten the words or tune over the years.

A few minutes later, Skye lay her head down in the pillows too, listening to Luna breathing sleepily. Skye closed her eyes and drifted off also.

* * *

><p>He stood there, thinking. He hadn't known that Time Walkers could even access this time. He was sure that it had all been blocked off. Nevertheless, the bursting lights should've stunned the Time Walker back onto the Path, especially right after Exiting.<p>

But He couldn't put all his trust in that. He had to now locate areas of current importance near Exits, and make sure that the Exit was blocked off. Since the bursting light trap wasn't located in one area only, he would have to go over all of them that had been open exactly eight minutes and forty-two seconds ago. Mentally checking the list in his head, he moved off.

* * *

><p>The Crobat fluttered down towards her master. She had scouted out a warehouse that looked abandoned, but was actually heaped with kids. Her master would be very proud of her. She landed on his shoulder and snuggled his head.<p>

"Hehe, looks like someone's found something good," the man said. He turned around to the gang of men lazing around behind him. "Come on, guys. Seems like we've found a picking ground."

Nasty grins adorned their faces as they stood up, various Pokémon appearing from the shadows and grouping around them. A tall, skinny man with a large nose pulled a knife from his belt, a Raticate crouching next to him. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go make some money!"

* * *

><p><strong>Well, this chapter was supposed to come out a long time ago.<strong>

…

**Oops! Anyway, I hope you like it. I edited the other chapters too, so confusing bits should make more sense than they probably did before. I dunno. Just reread them or something.**

**~Lock**


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